.TH lha 1
.SH NAME
lha \- compression tool for .lzh archive files.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B lha [-]{lvtxe[q{num}][finv]}[w=<dir>] archive_file [file...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
.B lha
is a tool for extracting .lzh archive files. It also supports variants
of the .lzh archive, such as .lzs and .pma.
.PP
This version of the lha tool is part of Lhasa, a free implementation
of the .lzh format.
.PP
.SH COMMAND SYNTAX
The lha tool has an unusual command syntax, compared to most other
Unix commands. The first parameter to the program specifies the command
to perform and all additional options. The second parameter specifies
the path to the archive file to operate on. Following this is a list
of wildcard patterns to match against the filenames of the archived
files.
.PP
The first character of the command parameter specifies the command to
perform, which is one of the following:
.TP
\fB-l\fR
List contents of the specified archive.
.TP
\fB-v\fR
Verbosely list contents of the specified archive.
.TP
\fB-t\fR
Test the integrity of the specified archive: decompress its contents and
check the CRC.
.TP
\fB-e\fR or \fB-x\fR
Extract archive. Files are extracted to the current working directory
unless the 'w' option is specified.
.PP
.SH OPTIONS
The remainder of the command parameter is used to specify additional
options:
.TP
\fBq[012]\fR
Quiet mode. Higher numbers suppress more output. Level 0 is normal
operation. If no number is specified, full suppression (level 2)
is used. The quiet option also turns on the force overwrite option
('f').
.TP
\fBf\fR
Force overwrite of existing files: do not prompt.
.TP
\fBi\fR
Ignore paths of archived files: extract all archived files to the
same directory, ignoring subdirectories.
.TP
\fBn\fR
Do not perform any actual operations: instead, perform a dry run of
the requested operation and describe what would have been done on
standard output.
.TP
\fBv\fR
Verbose mode: causes extra information to be written to standard
output.
.TP
\fBw=dir\fR
Specify destination directory for extracting files. This must be
the last option of the first parameter.
.SH SEE ALSO
\fBunzip\fR(1),
\fBtar\fR(1),
\fBgzip\fR(1),
\fBbzip2\fR(1)
.SH HISTORY
The .lzh format originated with Kazuhiko Miki's MS\-DOS archive tool,
LArc, using the LZSS algorithm developed by Haruhiko Okumura, and
the .lzs filename extension. The container format was reused for
LHarc, by Haruyasu Yoshizaki (Yoshi), which used a new algorithm
named LZHUF and the .lzh extension. In later versions, LHarc was
renamed to LHA and extended with more effective compression algorithms.
.PP
Versions of the LHA tool were later ported to various different
operating systems, including the Amiga, Atari, MacOS, OS/2 and Unix.
A tool for MSX\-DOS named PMarc reused the container format with a new
compression algorithm (.pma extension).
.PP
The Unix version of the tool was developed by Masaru Oki, Nobutaka
Watazaki and Tsugio Okamoto, but was released under a software
license that does not conform to the Free Software or Open Source
Definitions. Lhasa was developed as a drop\-in replacement that is
Free Software and Open Source.
.SH BUGS
The current version does not allow the creation of new archive files.
.PP
Some obscure compression algorithms are not currently supported
(\-lh2\-, \-lh3\-, \-lx1\-, \-lhx\-).
.SH AUTHOR
Lhasa was written and is maintained by Simon Howard.
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2011, 2012 Simon Howard.
.PP
Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software
for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided
that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear
in all copies.
.PP
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL
WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM
LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.


